Let His Love Dry Your Tears

Story of the Day for Tuesday March 20, 2012

Let His Love Dry Your Tears

The memory of my affliction and homelessness is bitterness and gall. As I recall it over and over, my soul is downcast within me.

Yet, I call this to mind and therefore have hope: Because of the Lord’s great love we are not consumed, because his mercies never fail. They are new every morning.

Lamentations 3:19-23

When our children were little my wife always insisted I should take them to the clinic for immunization shots. I tried to convince her that children need a mother at such traumatic moments. Then I would appeal to her higher nature by telling her not to be such a ninny.

Yet, despite my patient reasoning and crystalline logic, she remained adamant that I take them for their shots.

The ninny.

So off I would drive to the clinic with a little child bundled in the car seat. When the nurse walked into the room with the syringe, she would sigh and apologize – as if this is all her fault. (Nurses hate this part of their duties.)

I would hold my little toddler on my lap — this cute little lump of sweetness and joy. How swiftly the fortunes of life were about to change.

What happened next is always the same. One moment they sit on my lap, secure and content. Then the needle. And then the piercing scream that echoes into the next county. The cry that pierces a daddy’s heart.

Want to know what my children do next? They hug me. As they sob in pain they cling to me for comfort.

I cannot explain to them why I didn’t defend them – why I didn’t fight off the strange woman with the needle who attacked without provocation. I cannot explain that this present wound will pass, but the benefits will carry on. I cannot explain that I deliberately took them here because I love them dearly. My children are too young to understand. All I can do is hold them tight and tell them it will be okay.

Do you think there ever comes a time when God is willing to put you through painful experiences because he loves you? Do you think there are times when he hurts you but can’t explain his reasons?

Do you think he wants you to cling tighter to him? That he wants to hold you tight and let you know it is going to be okay?

So what do you do when the tears come and life hurts so badly? Cling to your heavenly Father. Blow your nose. And let his love dry your tears.